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Method to track and restrict reuse of information
Method to track and restrict reuse of information
Background
When person sends e-mail or writes document with confidential information, the information may be unexpectedly reused by other person.
There are already some methods to prohibit accessing to the information, by using encryption or access control. But once other person is allowed to access to the information, there is no way to restrict to reusing it. Also, some system already has feature that prevent copy or forward confidential information. But there is not a flexible way to allow or disallow copying a part of the information.
Furthermore, if the information was not confidential, person may want to notice when the information is obsolete. Person may want to directly update the information if it's reused in other place.
This method is to track and restrict reuse of information, or directly update the information that was reused.
Main Idea
When person writes some information by sending e-mail message or saving document in database system, a tracking data is automatically embedded to the information. The tracking data is to track copy or forward the original information by other person. Also, the tracking data includes the unique ID of the information and author of the information. It is registered to tracking database system to be referred later. (Fig 1) When other person reuses the information by forwarding e-mail or copying document, the tracking data is updated with the unique ID of the user who forwards or copies it. It is also registered to the tracking database. If the author or other user would like to track the information, the system can read all histories by searc...
